The Guitares au Palais is an annual

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...

-oriented music festival in the Palace of the Kings of Majorca in Perpignan, Pyrénées-Orientales, France, which began in 2004. The festival focuses on

folk Folk or Folks may refer to: Sociology *Nation *People * Folklore ** Folk art ** Folk dance ** Folk hero ** Folk music *** Folk metal *** Folk punk *** Folk rock ** Folk religion * Folk taxonomy Arts, entertainment, and media * Folk Plus or Fo ...

, gypsy music, jazz, and flamenco. On the third day there is an additional program with a focus on

indie rock Indie rock is a subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the music they produc ...

related artists. The festival is for free. The festival is held in the last weekend of August in the Palace and the gardens. The festival's art director is Pedro Soler and opens the stage to an eclectic stream of guitar enthusiasts with performances in traditional acoustic guitar,

flamenco Flamenco (), in its strictest sense, is an art form based on the various folkloric music traditions of southern Spain, developed within the gitano subculture of the region of Andalusia, and also having historical presence in Extremadura and ...

, classical music, gypsy music,

pop music Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom. The terms ''popular music'' and ''pop music'' are often used interchangeably, although the former descri ...

and

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

. International guests includes the

Rosenberg Trio The Rosenberg Trio is a Dutch jazz band consisting of lead guitarist Stochelo Rosenberg, rhythm guitarist Nous'che Rosenberg and bassist Nonnie Rosenberg. The band is influenced by Django Reinhardt, the gypsy jazz guitarist of the 1930s. The ...

, Tekamali and Paco Ibáñez in 2004,

Montserrat Figueras Montserrat Figueras i García (, 15 March 1942 – 23 November 2011) was a Spanish soprano who specialized in early music. Figueras was born 15 March 1942 in Barcelona, Spain. After initially training as an actress she began studying early singing ...

, Rolf Lislevand and Manolo Sanlucar in 2005, The National and Sergio Lopez in 2006,

Caetano Veloso Caetano Emanuel Viana Teles Veloso (; born 7 August 1942) is a Brazilian composer, singer, guitarist, writer, and political activist. Veloso first became known for his participation in the Brazilian musical movement Tropicalismo, which encomp ...

in 2007, and the Rumberos Catalans, Bernardo Sandoval,

Peter Finger Peter Finger (born 11 October 1954) is a German acoustic fingerstyle guitarist, songwriter, composer and record producer. His most notable recordings include "Just Another Day in May", "Vielleicht Im Nächsten Leben", "Fanesca", "For You", "101 S ...

and

Aaron and Bryce Dessner The National is an American rock band of Cincinnati, Ohio natives, formed in Brooklyn, New York City in 1999. The band consists of Matt Berninger (vocals), twin brothers Aaron Dessner (guitar, piano, keyboards) and Bryce Dessner (guitar, piano, ...

in 2008.
The 2009 edition was curated by

Vincent Moon Vincent Moon (real name Mathieu Saura, born 25 August 1979) is an independent filmmaker, photographer, and sound artist from Paris. He was the main director of the Blogotheque's Take Away Shows, a web-based project recording field work music vid ...

and featured a line-up of indie bands playing on the instruments of

Yuri Landman Yuri Landman (born 1 February 1973) is a Dutch inventor of musical instruments and musician who has made several experimental electric string instruments for a number of artists including Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth, Liars, Jad Fair of Half Japan ...

. This event was filmed for a documentary by Moon.

References

Music festivals in France {{France-stub